Motivated by his fanatical love of baseball, Ray Kinsella is inspired to build a baseball stadium in his corn field, dedicated to his hero, the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, in a novel that became the inspiration for the film Field of Dreams. Reprint. *Author: Kinsella, W. P./ Radziewicz, John (EDT) *Publication Date: 1999/04/28 *Number of Pages: 272 *Binding Type: Paperback *Language: English *Depth: 0.50 *Width: 5.25 *Height: 8.50

From the Publisher:Ray Kinsella's fanatic love of baseball drives him to build a baseball stadium in his corn field and kidnap the author, J.D. Salinger, and bring him to a baseball game

"If you build it, he will come." Them mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. This is a book "not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American," said the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Annotation:Ray Kinsella, an insurance agent turned farmer, begins hearing voices--rather, a Voice. "If you build it, he will come," the Voice tells Ray, who intuitively knows that "he" is Shoeless Joe Jackson, banned from baseball along with the other 1919 "Black Sox." Ray builds a baseball stadium in his cornfield, and waits. But the Voice isn't finished. "Ease his pain," it orders Ray; in this case, the person the Voice is talking about is J. D. Salinger, and Ray must kidnap him and take him to a game at Fenway Park in Boston. This is just the beginning....

Author Bio

W.P. Kinsella

W. P. Kinsella attended the University of Victoria, from which he received his B.A. in 1974, and the University of Iowa, from which he received his M.F.A. in 1978. He counts among his influences his Yugoslavian grandmother, who used to tell him stories as a child. He has won many awards for his fiction, beginning with his debut, "Shoeless Joe", which was made into the movie "Field of Dreams".

Praise

"A work as curious, compelling, artful and mysterious as the game it celebrates. Surely a strong candidate for any literary Hall of Fame." - George Plimpton

Christian Science Monitor"Kinsella does wonders in this book: The visual fantasies are so rich that whether you believe them or not, you can't help imagining them....[Kinsella] has a rare talent for conveying pure joy." - Maggie Lewis 07/09/1982

"Any book that has Shoeless Joe Jackson, J. D. Salinger, Fenway Park and Moonlight Graham in it almost before you pause to catch your breath has got to be more fun than Reggie Jackson under a high fly. This is Baseball as it might be on the other side of the moon." - Jim Murray

Quill and Quire"His novel celebrates imagination and effort, wittily posits serious theses on the role of baseball and other art forms, and provokes various kinds of laughter." - Terrance Cox June 1982

Fiddlehead"In Kinsella's world when physical survival is impossible, one often survives in the works of others. In 'Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa,' other people are our means of redemption, our salvation. Through them, the dead are reclaimed, exonerated of past misdeeds." - Anthony Bukoski Spring 1981